Mikhail Shatrov, whose historical plays subjected Stalin and his legacy to withering scrutiny and signaled a new era of artistic freedom under Mikhail Gorbachev, died on Sunday at his home in Moscow. He was 78...
> Mikhail Shatrov, Outspoken Soviet Playwright, Dies at 78
> By WILLIAM GRIMES
> Mr. Shatrov's plays shocked Soviet audiences with their fierce
> criticism of Stalin.
>
>
...An assiduous researcher, Mr. Shatrov gleaned historical details and even lines of dialogue from the minutes of party meetings, unpublished memoirs and his own interviews with participants in the events he described., In all of his historical plays the problems of the Soviet system begin with Stalin. Their solution lies in finding a way back to the Leninist path., “If you read my plays, you will see that all of them are in essence about one thing, ” Mr. Shatrov told The New York Times in 1988. “Stalin is a criminal of the kind the world has never had. He is not a Communist for me, because if he is a Communist, I have to leave the party immediately.”...